‘US tanks to Kiev’: Russia speaks of ‘shameless provocation’
German magazine Der Spiegel Reported yesterday Germany approves supply of tanks to Ukraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been calling for 74-ton Leopard 2 tanks for months to fight the Russians.
We’ll find out more this afternoon
The German government has yet to confirm the decision, but is expected to do so today. “German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to make an announcement about the Leopard 2 tanks at 1pm today. We’ll know more later,” says reporter Jeroen Ackermans.
It is not yet clear whether the Netherlands will send the eighteen tanks we are leasing from Germany to Ukraine. More on that Read here.
‘step by step’
Last night it was reported that US tanks were also moving into Ukraine. Anonymous sources say otherwise The New York Times President Joe Biden’s administration is ‘over’. Kiev will receive about thirty Abrams M1 tanks. Like the Cheetah 2 tanks, these are combat vehicles that Ukraine has never received. According to the American newspaper, this is a ‘pioneering’ move.
Officially, the US decision has not yet been confirmed, but according to various media outlets – as in Germany – an announcement will follow today.
Germany had previously said it would not send tanks unless the US did so. Correspondent Ackermans yesterday suspected that ‘Germany may make the first announcement’.
A messenger of menace
Although the official supply of tanks to Ukraine has yet to be confirmed, the Russian ambassador to the US has already reacted furiously. Anatoly Antonov speaks of a “shameless provocation” and says that “Washington is deliberately trying to inflict a strategic defeat on us.”
“If the US actually decides to supply tanks, the argument that they are ‘defensive weapons’ will not work at all,” the diplomat threatens.
Meanwhile, Ukraine reacted enthusiastically to the arrival of the tanks. A Zelensky staffer calls it “a game changer.”
Undeterred Germany
Lately it has been all over Europe A scathing critique of our ‘indecisive’ eastern neighbours. Since the Panther 2 tanks are manufactured in Germany, German approval is required for delivery to other countries.
About 2,000 of them in Europe and Poland formally asked Berlin for permission to send tanks to Ukraine earlier this week. Finland and Portugal are recommended to supply tanks to Ukraine.
In this video we explain why modern Western tanks are so important for Ukraine:
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